I thought you folks might like to read my Arizona trip report. Feel free to discard if you start snoozin'...

I had a most wonderful trip to Arizona. Teresa's Aunt Cheryl, Uncle Larry, and cousins Brant (age 19) and Erik (age 24) were verrrrrry welcoming and fun. When I arrived at Larry and Cheryl's house at 5pm on Saturday (Teresa had flown in from Pennsylvania a few days before), folks were in the kitchen making dinner and Erik arrived shortly after. We had a lovely dinner, played two verrrry animated games of Gestures (sort of like Charades), then two games of water volleyball in their backyard pool. We had an amazing amount of fun. The accommodations were great in their big lovely house. Teresa and I each had our own room.

Sunday morning Teresa, Brant and I started our overnight road trip to Sedona and Flagstaff. Brant was such a joy to have along. What a fine young man he is! (Use that as one of your resume references, Brant!) The highlight of this trip was this 12.5-mile dirt road (called Schnebley) we took from Hwy 17 into Sedona. It cut right through a canyon. There were pot holes, rocks and puddles we had to maneuver. There was a sign that said "not recommended for passenger vehicles" but this was the road Uncle Larry recommended so we knew it had to be OK and our rented Mazda Protege did just fine.

Jeep tours drove by us. We imagined ourselves being the brunt of the tour guide's jokes. Two different tour guides stopped and said to us, "I hope that's a rental". Riding that road was like playing a video game, navigating through the obstacles. I was driving. It was a fun drive and the views were absolutely spectacular. And get this ... when we returned to tell Uncle Larry of our experience ... he was shocked ... the road he meant to send us on was *not* a dirt one! Ha! So we proceeded to recommend to him that he must experience this road/view. He has a 4 wheel drive SUV that will do just fine on it.

We had a nice picnic lunch in Sedona enjoying the views. We climbed some rocks and enjoyed more views. Brant and I tagged along while Teresa did some gift shopping. Then we drove the nice drive through Oak Canyon to Flagstaff.

Flagstaff is a quaint town. We checked into a suite at Inn Suites (voted best value) and sure enough it was quite a value. Brant had his own room and bathroom in the modest suite and a social hour with drinks/snacks and a full buffet breakfast were included in the price. We enjoyed dinner in a cozy Mediterranean restaurant with a big sweet Saint Bernard dog out front that we petted and returned to the suite where Brant and Teresa taught me to play the very fun and challenging card game called Scratch.

Monday morning we woke up to sprinkles. So after a quick stop at the grocery store to get me a plastic rain coat we were on our way to Walnut Canyon which we hiked into to view really cool "cliff dwellings" from a long long time ago. We could walk right inside the actual dwellings and see more of them in the cliffs opposite the canyon. There were walls and doorways in place among the cliffs and the "ceilings" had black soot on them from the fires the dwellers had there. They were incredible.

The next stop was Montezuma's Castle --- more cave dwellings that had nothing to do with Montezuma. They were really cool too. We had time before our rental car was due back in Phoenix so we stopped in the college town of Tempe and had a nice lunch.

Back at Larry and Cheryl's house we had a nice dinner sharing stories of our trip (especially about the dirt road!) then prepped the tents, sleeping bags and other supplies for our trip to the Grand Canyon. 24 year old cousin Eric was going to fly Larry, Teresa and I there in a 4-seater Cesna airplane. I was a little nervous about that. The first thing I did when I met Eric was to check him over to make up my mind whether he was a mature, responsible young man. I thought so from the moment I met him. I told him that about 60 seconds after meeting him --- that I'd checked him out and he'd passed the test! I liked Erik (and everyone else) from the moment I met him (them).

Up and out early the next morning (Tuesday) Cheryl drove us to the small airport. 24 year old Erik, our pilot, had driven separately, earlier, to prep the plane. He was moving his car when we arrived and as our vehicles passed he said, "Ugh, it's early ... I have a hangover and I only got one hour of sleep". I was about to freak out only to realize seconds later that he was just joking. His mom knew right away that he was kidding. He made that joke knowing that I had questioned whether he was responsible. Hee hee.

We loaded up the plane, took photos, hopped in, put on our headsets with microphones for communication with each other and took off into the wild blue yonder. Erik was an excellent pilot. We had a great flight. Erik took us over Sedona and get this ... from the air we saw our dirt Schnebley road cutting through the canyon. It was way cool. And it was great seeing all the gorgeous Sedona red rock formations from the air.

When we touched down at the Grand Canyon Airport I questioned into my microphone, "Could it *be* any smoother?". The landing was poetry in motion. So graceful. After a little break at the airport we took off again to do a flight over the Grand Canyon. If you've never been to the Grand Canyon - YOU MUST GO. It is absolutely incredible no matter how you view it. It was a special treat to be able to fly over it in a small plane.

When we landed at the Grand Canyon airport the second time Erik called the tower and arranged for a taxi to pick us up and take us to our campsite. Pretty convenient. We walked across the tarmac with our stuff, went out a gate and onto the curb. We got a great campsite and carefully selected our tent spots within the site because it was inevitable it was going to rain and we could see where the rains had flowed in the past. We didn't want to pitch a tent in a river waiting to happen. Then it was off to catch the Grand Canyon busses to check out the Grand Canyon by foot.

We enjoyed breathtaking views from a variety of stops. We saw several beautiful big condors. We learned that the first condor egg ever laid in the wild in Arizona was layed recently but as fate would have it, it cracked. Turns out that is a common thing for first time condor parents. We saw ominous clouds in various parts of the canyon but it never rained where we were. Somehow we kept avoiding the rain during our travels and we had great weather. We saw powerful lightening bolts zigzagging into the canyon. We saw where the Bright Angel trailhead was taped off - closed for three weeks - due to repairs of a washout (that tragically killed a family of three a day or two before). We took a nice little hike down into the canyon a bit from Hermits Rest. We discoverd (not first hand) that bikinis can in fact be worn as hiking garb.

From our window seat we saw that it was raining during our dinner but of course by the time we went back out it had stopped. It was just a little cool so I put on the clear plastic raincoat I got at the grocery store in Flagstaff. I said that by putting on that raincoat I was ensuring that it would not rain on us. Teresa kept a straight face when she complemented me, telling me I looked good in it. I responded a strong, "I KNOW". She said I sounded just like Carla when I'd said that (which I was well aware of and quite intentional). We hopped on another bus but before it took off we asked the driver from where could we get a good view of the sunset.

Turns out that if we would've stayed on that bus we would have missed it. She pointed us off in a direction on foot and just as we got to where we thought we were headed we heard a man announcing, "last chance to catch a bus to see the sunset". Perfect! We hopped on and just as we arrived and got settled the sun began its evening show. It was spectacular. The colors against the rock layers were magnificent and the sunball dropping down just behind the canyon's rim was a sight to behold.

Walking on by the Bright Angel lodge the guys hit the lounge while I escorted Teresa on one of her excursions to a gift shop. We rejoined the guys, got to talking, and the next thing we knew it was 9 pm! By this time we still hadn't figured out how late the busses run. Nowhere is the August timetable published. After careful study we were finally able to decipher the times for two other seasons, but not for the current one. There was a chance that the busses stopped at 9pm so we hustled on out to the bus stop.

In keeping with our incredible luck, of course the busses were still running, and we motored on back to camp. One of the funniest moments of the trip was when we stepped off the bus and the bus pulled away. It was like the master lighting switch to the world had been shut off. The world had been lit up and then wham, it went pitch pitch pitch black when the bus drove away. We couldn't see our hands in front of our faces. We fumbled for our flashlights, laughing, and walked back to camp.

I was curious to see how our gear had fared in the rain. Sure enough we stayed clear of the river spots and the stuff inside the tent kept dry. Teresa and I got into our tent all cozy and settled into our sleeping bags when we heard Larry and Erik's ooohing and aaaahing as they watched shooting stars. Darn. I hate to miss out on seeing shooting stars. I love them. But I was all snuggled in and it was damp out there so as hard as it was I let the opportunity pass. Did you know that if you eat pudding it increases your chances of seeing shooting stars? Ask Erik about that.

Up and at 'em the next day (Wednesday) we got some lovely morning views of different canyon spots then it was back to the airport for our flight home. We took a different flight path and saw different scenery. Back at Larry and Cheryl's home we settled in, took a swim, showed our digital photos to Cheryl and Brant on the big screen tv, went out to Mexican dinner and came home to an evening of game playing. The Flick family taught me a dice game called "Greedy" which was really fun. Erik taught me the card game Speed which was a lot like the game Spit that I know. Talk about speed ... that's a fast moving game. Then I asked folks to humor me and play the game I made up on the spot called Team Speed, which cranked up the pace and caused even more good-spirited contention on the card piles. Brant and I won. (Not that I'm competitive (ahem)).

The next day (Thursday) after a leisurely breakfast and chat with Cheryl, Teresa and I hit the pool, lying on rafts in the sun, enjoying girltalk and commenting that we felt like we were at a resort. The setting was beautiful. Great pool. Great palm tree. Great company. What a life!

Then at noon my stay had come to an end and it was off to take me to the airport. Funny that back at the San Jose airport while waiting for a shuttle bus I got to talking to a young woman. She'd asked where I'd been and when I'd said the Grand Canyon she commented on all of the recent "bad karma" at the canyon - many deaths from trail washouts, helicopter and plane crashes. I feel for all the people affected by those things and feel incredibly lucky for all the "amazing karma" that we had on the whole trip. We intentionally pretty much just bumbled around with very little planning and stumbled upon a primo experience to remember fondly forever!

---Lisa